18 million watched Republican debate

The CNN Republican presidential debate on Tuesday drew 18 million viewers, the third-largest audience of any presidential primary debate in history.

The two higher-rated debates also were from the GOP race this year. Roughly 24 million watched the August Fox News Republican debate — the first of the campaign and highlighted by the debate debut of Donald Trump — while 23 million watched a September CNN face-off.

CNN also said Tuesday night’s debate in Las Vegas was the second-most watched show in the network’s history, (after September’s debate), according to Nielsen Fast National ratings data, and the audience was the third largest for a non-sports cable telecast (behind the other two debates).

The ratings represent a marked improvement over the last Republican debate, when 13.4 million tuned in on Fox Business Network last month.

CNN said it also live-streamed the event to 3.1 million.

The next debate will feature the Democratic field in New Hampshire this Saturday and is co-sponsored by ABC and WMUR. The GOP’s next scheduled debate is Jan. 14 in North Charleston, S.C.